News Release

Dubai

JLL advises on a school sale-leaseback transaction in Dubai

​JLL, the world's leading real estate investment and advisory firm, has acted as advisors to the seller on a sale-leaseback transaction for the Dubai campus of a K-12 international curriculum school.

NBK Capital Partners, an alternative investment group of NBK Capital based in Dubai, has completed the AED 350 million (US$ 95 million) transaction in line with the firm's strategy to acquire income-generating real estate assets across the GCC. The school operator has leased the campus over the long term, and will continue to operate and manage the school.

"JLL was instrumental in structuring a deal that successfully married the objectives of the school operator with the expectations of the investor, a key component in executing such transactions efficiently and effectively," said Gaurav Shivpuri, Head of Capital Markets in MENA, JLL.

"We continue to see strong investor demand for sale-leaseback & Build to Suit transactions and are currently advising a number of other asset owners in the education, healthcare, logistics and automotive sectors. These owners see this as a viable alternative to fund business capital requirements to traditional debt as this provides higher liquidity for the owners, provides asset-light investment structures, and offers cushion against potential interest rate hikes in a rising interest rate environment and tightening credit. We expect to see more of these trades in the future."

Mr Shivpuri added JLL is seeing increased potential in Saudi Arabia where the government is progressing on the privatisation of the healthcare and education sector, and is insisting private businesses in the two sectors operating out of sub-optimal facilities move to more customised real estate.

"Developers and investors are extremely keen to get involved in building such facilities if the tenant is prepared to sign on a long-term lease for a fair market based rent," he said.

"Private and institutional investors and Asset Managers and REITs have strong interest in real estate assets backed by long term lease to performing businesses in the region."